GJM says intensified agitation not a bandh, no diktat to people

Darjeeling: The indefinite agitation by the GJM in Darjeeling, which is demanding Gorkhaland, continued for the third day Friday with the party stressing that no diktat was issued to the people and it was not a bandh.
"The GJM leadership affirms its full respect for the recent observations of the Calcutta High Court on the developments in the Darjeeling hills and asserts that there is no diktat issued for the people," GJM President Bimal Gurung said in a Facebook post.

"The agitation should not be construed as a bandh but is only an expression of the free will of the people," he said.

He said "There will be no force, intimidation or coercion of any sort."

"This comes in the contrary to the reports in a section of the media that suggest otherwise," he said.

Gurung said that the agitation named ` Ghar Bhaira Janta Program` "was a voluntarily democratic and peaceful rally" by the Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee, a platform which was carrying forward the movement for Gorkhaland.

"The GJM leadership clarifies that the ongoing agitation has been intensified further as the ‘Ghar Bahira Janta’ continues indefinitely till the leaders are released and their cases are withdrawn," Gurung said.

"The GJM supporters will continue to exercise their freedom of expression, speech and their right to assemble peacefully without arms to press for their demand for Gorkhaland with the ?Ghar Bhaira Janta? program," he said.

The high court had on August 14 expressed displeasure over the GJM`s violation of its order of August 7 which had held the indefinite bandh in Darjeeling as illegal.